Month: August 2017

Historically, owning real estate has always walked hand-in-hand with being wealthy. While some buy their own homes with visions of a more secure retirement, others want to go further. The popularity of real estate investment is heralded by the popularity of such courses and Carlton Sheets’ No Money Down system and other similar realty investment studies.

No matter which guru you choose to follow, you’ll need properties to consider, analyze and buy at a price you can improve on when you sell. I’ve know a few people who bought the course, then didn’t really have the guts to try it out. The fear of buying a property that wouldn’t sell at a profit was too great.

If cost is a concern to you, and you don’t have a lot of capital to start out with, you’ll want to look at older, fix-it-up properties. This is especially right for the do-it-yourselfer who loves to rebuild, improve and decorate. The right property can be bought inexpensively, fixed up by yourself or for a reasonable cost, then sold at a great profit.

Another way to start out inexpensively is to look at repossessed properties. Repossession of real estate can happen in a variety of ways. The most common is default of mortgage. Lenders who are not getting their monthly payments have the right to take over the property, which is almost always the collateral for the loan. However, these lenders, mostly banks and other consumer financial institutions are not set up to manage and maintain the properties they repossess. It is in their best interest to rid themselves of the real estate so as to recover as much of the debt as they can before they spend even more in repairs, maintenance and selling costs. They also know that the longer a building sits empty, the less they’ll eventually get for it.

Much of the time these properties are sold at public auctions. This is a good way for the repossessor to offload the unwanted property quickly. Check out the public auctions in your area. You’ll also want to talk directly to the banks near you. Auctions are held only so often. Until the next one, the lender must keep the property in good selling condition or lose more on the sale. Therefore, they might be willing to sell it directly to you at a price dramatically below market value. You can then turn around and sell it at market value and keep the profit!

Other repossessions occur for non-payment of taxes by the government. These and other government seizures of real and other property are also sold at government-sponsored public auctions. This is another great place to find your first inexpensive real estate investment.

Repossessed real estate comes in all forms – homes, apartment buildings, office buildings, factories, and in all conditions. Some need fixing up, in which case real deals can be had! Some are as good as new and ready to be moved into or re-sold. Figure out what type you want to deal in, then start shopping around. You’ll be amazed at the wonderful deals to be had!